Dovekie
Little auks (Alle alle) are small seabirds that live on islands in the high Arctic. They can fly and are excellent swimmers (appearing to "fly") and divers, but their walking appears clumsy.
This is the only Atlantic auk of its size, half the size of the Atlantic puffin at 19–21 cm in length, with a 34–38 cm wingspan. The weight ranges from 4.7 to 7.2 oz (134-204 g). Adult birds are black on the head, neck, back, and wings, with white underparts. The bill is very short and stubby. They have a small rounded black tail. The lower face and fore neck become white in winter.
Little auks breed in Greenland, Novaya Zemlya, Svalbard, and Franz Josef Land. A small number of individuals breed on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait with additional breeding individuals thought to occur on King Island, St. Lawrence Island, St. Matthew Island, and the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. Little auks move south in winter into northern areas of the North Atlantic. Late autumn storms may carry them south of their normal wintering areas, or into the North Sea. And they are also commonly found in the Norwegian Sea. These birds breed on marine cliffsides and nest in crevices or beneath large rocks.
Little auks are social birds that forage in large flocks and breed in colonies. They are fast flyers being able to reach the speed of up to 70 kmph (43.5 mph); their flight is direct, with fast whirring wing beats due to the short wings. Little auks forage by day swimming underwater. They feed not by filter-feeding, but by visually guided suction-feeding. They feed closer to the shoreline during nesting season, but when not nesting they search for food in the open ocean. Little auks produce a variety of twitters and cackling calls at the breeding colonies but are silent at sea.
Little auks have a carnivorous diet. They mainly eat crustaceans, especially copepods, of which a 150 g bird requires around 60,000 individuals per day, but they can also eat small invertebrates and fish.
Little auks are monogamous and form pair bonds that last for several years. The birds usually return to their nesting grounds around April and females lay their single egg in June. Colonies nest in crevices, cracks, or under rocks, and pairs fiercely compete for the best nest sites. Nests are constructed of pebbles and both parents incubate their eggs for around 29 days. The chicks hatch semi-precocial and grow very fast. They remain in the nest for about 4 weeks before flying away from the colony out to sea. Young birds become reproductively mature when they are 3 years old and are to breed until about 8 years of age.
Little auks are not threatened at present but they do suffer from oil pollution, bycatch, and hunting.
According to IUCN Red List, the total population size of the Little auk is around 16,000,000-36,000,000 individuals. However, the European population alone was recently estimated at 9,200,000-82,000,000 mature individuals so the global population is likely to be considerably larger than the current estimate. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List but its numbers today are decreasing.
